I am applying for a job at a school at the moment, and have been informed that I will need to complete a TEFL certificate in order for everything to be nice and legal. I already have a Bachelor degree, but according to the school, only buxibans can provide work visas for people with just a Bachelor degree. Is this true? I was under the impression that all you needed was a Bachelor degree to work legally in Taiwan (but then again, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong!). Apparently, I don't necessarily need to have to finished the course before I start the job, just at least have enrolled in it before the ARC papers start to be organised.

I'm looking at two courses, one from ICAL, the other from Online TEFL. However, both companies admit that there is no form of international standard or requirements for what TEFL courses actually cover, even though they both claim to be accredited. Do any employers care where you've done a TEFL certificate? And has anyone completed courses through these companies? What were they like?

I completed International TESOL, it was really easy. You can get info on it at their website www.teachandtravel.com After taking the course I don't really see how they are necessary. Sure we learned a bit about teaching, but most of the course was about getting a job.

Yeah, I was looking at the material for the course, and it didn't really seem like much. The fact that on this site the company was admitting there were a lot of dodgy courses in the industry isn't too assuring.

I've spoken to a few people, and apparently a lot of schools either don't know or don't care where you've completed the course, just as long as you've done it.

Basically, to get the job that I want, I need to do the course, so I can't exactly tell the school the course they want me to do is a bag of shiite.

To go into a "proper" school (ie. main stream school system Elemntary/High School or Primary/Secondary school depending which kind of English you grew up with) you will be asked for some kind of teaching qualification, at least to be full-time staff with a work visa and ARC. For bushibans you can get a job and ARC with a bachelors degree only. As for certificate qualifications, the best known are the CETLA and Trinity cert.TESOL (whether these are the best in terms of methodology or value for money I have no idea.) I have a cert.TESOL and I did find it useful, but it only gives you a basic foundation in teaching adults, it is afterall a short course. The big problems that there are with the Trinity (and presumably with the CELTA as well, as they are recognised as equivalent,) are, firstly, if you are planning on teaching children (especially very young learners), these courses are focused on teaching adults, and secondly, there are elements in these courses which are not the ideal way for dealing with Asian learners' problems. That said they do at least give you a foundation to start from.

As for the schools you mentioned, try posting on the teacher training forum and see what comes up. (Most of the discussion here does not directly relate to these kind of issues.)